William was born in England and moved to New Zealand at the age of eight where he later attended Wellington College. Pursuing his interest in music, he spent 1984 in England. Returning to Wellington, William studied Classics, History and English Literature at Victoria University.

He spent a season working at Aspen in Colorado, and for the last ten years has lived here in Sydney.

Wiliam's central passion was music, and he has been the driving force and creative centre of the band Glide.

Glide toured Australia extensively, and William and Andrew spent seven weeks touring America last year. The band's many recordings received wide critical acclaim: one reviewer called William 'the best songwriter in Australia'. Glide was named as the Triple J new band of the year.

As well as music, William loved art (especially art deco) and literature.

This year new horizons were opening up for William, with the journalism studies at which he was excelling, and the move into a new home which he had already started to transform with the energy and imagination which were typical of him.